A secularist argument for religion in American public life

Since 1947, the Supreme Court has promised government neutrality toward religion, but in a nation whose motto is "In God We Trust" and which pledges allegiance to "One Nation under God," the public square is anything but neutral—a paradox not lost on a rapidly secularizing America and a point of contention among those who identify all expressions of religion by government as threats to a free society. Yeshiva student turned secularist, Bruce Ledewitz seeks common ground for believers and nonbelievers regarding the law of church and state. He argues that allowing government to promote higher law values through the use of religious imagery would resolve the current impasse in the interpretation of the Establishment Clause. It would offer secularism an escape from its current tendency toward relativism in its dismissal of all that religion represents and encourage a deepening of the expression of meaning in the public square without compromising secular conceptions of government.

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This is an ambitious, rich, and rewarding book. Readers will learn a great deal about the place of religion in contemporary American politics, the U.S. Supreme Court's treatment of 'church-state separation' since the mid-twentieth century, and the complex dance between faith and secularism in America's free religious marketplace. Not all readers will agree with Ledewitz's normative concerns or with his solutions, but considering both is a task well worth undertaking.

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Ledewitz's incorporation of the intellectual history of and current challenges facing secularism is a valuable and unique contribution to the Establishment Clauses literature.

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Ledewitz's Church, State and the Crisis in American Secularism is an ambitious and timely work. . . . [His] critique of modern Establishment Clause jurisprudence is compelling and frequently insightful.

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Church, State, and the Crisis in American Secularism is a fascinating and scholarly read, highly recommended. September 2011